Installation guide

Chapter 23. Upgrading the Kernel 207
23.3. Downloading the Upgraded Kernel
There are several ways to determine if there is an updated kernel available for your system.
• Go to http://www.redhat.com/apps/support/errata/, choose the version of Red Hat
Linux you are using, and view the errata for it. Kernel errata are usually under the
Security Advisories section. From the list of errata, click the kernel errata to view
the detailed errata report for it. In the errata report, there is a list of required RPM
packages and a link to download them from the Red Hat FTP site. You can also
download them from a Red Hat FTP mirror site. A list of mirror sites is available at
http://www.redhat.com/download/mirror.html.
• Use Red Hat Network. You can use Red Hat Network to download the kernel RPM pack-
ages and then manually upgrade to the latest kernel. Or, if you have elected to let the Red
Hat Update Agent upgrade packages for you, Red Hat Network can download the latest
kernel, upgrade the kernel on your system, create an initial RAM disk if needed, and con-
figure the boot loader to boot the new kernel. All you have to do is reboot into the new
kernel. For more information, refer to the Red Hat Network User Reference Guide available
at http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/RHNetwork/.
If there is an updated kernel for the version of Red Hat Linux you are running, download the
appropriate packages using one of these methods. If you used Red Hat Network to upgrade
your kernel automatically, you are finished — just reboot your system to use the new kernel.
If you just downloaded the RPM packages from the Red Hat Linux errata page or from Red
Hat Network, proceed to Section 23.4.
23.4. Performing the Upgrade
Now that you have the necessary kernel RPM packages, you can upgrade your existing ker-
nel. At a shell prompt as root, change to the directory that contains the kernel RPM packages
and follow these steps.
Important
It is strongly recommended that you keep the old kernel in case you have problems with the new
kernel.
Use the -i argument with the rpm command if you want to keep the old kernel. If you use
the -U option to upgrade the kernel package, it will overwrite the currently installed kernel
(the kernel version and x86 version might vary):
rpm -ivh kernel-2.4.18-0.12.i386.rpm
If the system is a multi-processor system, install the kernel-smp packages as well (the kernel
version and x86 version might vary):
rpm -ivh kernel-smp-2.4.18-0.12.i386.rpm
If the system is i686-based and contains more than 4 gigabytes of RAM, install the kernel-
bigmem package built for the i686 architecture as well (the kernel version might vary):
rpm -ivh kernel-bigmem-2.4.18-0.12.i686.rpm